Biden administration to impose sanctions on Cuban officials following attacks on protesters
Source: Washington Post
The Biden administration will announce new sanctions Thursday against a number of Cuban officials deemed directly involved in human rights abuses during a government crackdown on widespread protests earlier this month, a senior administration official said. Imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act, the sanctions will initially affect what officials said were a small number of individuals from Cuba’s Interior Ministry and military forces.
The measures come as President Biden faces increasing pressure from Congress, activist groups and Cuban Americans to take decisive action in support of the protesters. The administration had been making its way toward implementing a new policy toward Cuba that would reverse many of the actions taken by President Donald Trump to restrict travel, trade and other forms of outreach. The Obama administration had expanded contacts when it reestablished diplomatic relations with Havana in 2015.
But the ongoing upheaval in Cuba, including unprecedented, islandwide demonstrations that resulted in hundreds of arrests, government attacks against protesters and attempts to shut down the Internet communications that enabled demonstrations to be organized, have set the Biden administration on a new timetable and pushed it away from anything that could be seen as a concession to the communist regime.
Building an evidentiary package documenting abuse and corruption under the Global Magnitsky Act “normally … takes weeks of work,” the senior official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under terms set by the White House. Instead, Biden “had State and Treasury drop everything they were doing and put something together in the space of a week.” The sanctions freeze any assets under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibit U.S. travel, although they are most effective as a form of public naming and shaming.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/biden-cuba-sanctions/2021/07/22/b058c69c-ea93-11eb-8950-d73b3e93ff7f_story.html
